June 2016

Summer is upon us, and with all the extra heat it is crucial to keep your roses well hydrated and cool. Roses should be watered deeply two to three times a week in the summer. Roses love the water, but it is good for them to go one to two days without it. This reduces the risk of over-watering and...

As spring turns to summer, the roses at Heirloom are looking beautiful. However, even expert gardeners have to deal with blooms which are spent or dead. These lingering blossoms look ugly against the new buds and blooms of repeat and continual bloomers and can even stop the production of buds in once bloomers. Therefore, it is crucial to remove these...

Climbing roses always make an impact. Whether they are running along a fence, growing up into a tree, or climbing a stately trellis, we can count on them to stand out. However, many people are daunted by the task of selecting a trellis and training their climber. So we have created a short guide on everything you need to know...

In 1887, at the young age of 22, Wilhelm Kordes founded a nursery in a small town north of Hamburg, Germany. Wilhelm began propagating roses and became a respected grower of his time. In later years, he partnered with his father and brother to expand rose production in the 1930’s. The Kordes breeding program is now one of the largest...

“A rose is a rose is a rose.” While this statement may have been true concerning Gertrude Stein’s poem Sacred Emily and the idea that objects and circumstances exist in the moment, always the same, it does not hold true regarding the quality of the rose plant. Not all roses are created equal! Which is why, here at Heirloom...